Why habits are a good thing

For years it was reinforced to me that ‘habits’ are synonymous with ‘nasty’ things like smoking, biting nails (of which I’m guilty,) and squeezing the toothpaste from the top, and not the bottom, of the tube.

DON’T DO THE LATTER – IT’S JUST WRONG

However, good habits have you doing beneficial actions without thinking. Like cleaning your teeth, or your morning burpees. 😉

Two weeks ago I inadvertently took a break from fiz and have only done three workouts in the last fourteen days, which reeked havoc with my HABITUAL daily WOD.

If you read this blog regularly you’ll know that the Chin Strapped ethos deliberately ignores aesthetics in favour of PBs and better performance. But I couldn’t help but notice some definition had gone, though not a great deal.

This was nothing on the losses I noticed when I got the Nano 4’s out again.

I was huffing and puffing, doing a Frame Fitness class in Gymbox, nearly throwing my guts up, it was all great fun! I made fitness losses and I had to accept it, I’d been slacking.

The next morning was a struggle to make it out of bed for a 6:45 HIIT workout. Not my usual ‘spring out of bed and hop out the door in my sports gear’ kind of wake up.

That evening I’d have normally done some Olympic lifting but truth be told, I couldn’t be arsed! I’d slipped out of the habit that had me feeling like shit if I didn’t train. The habit that got me onto the gym floor or out on the hills without even thinking.

Once doing fitness everyday became part of my habitual way of life, I no longer had to struggle with myself to put in the yards. I lost the need to grapple with the idea of skipping a day.

Over time I developed the habit of committing suicide in the gym to the other extreme point where I disliked heavy weights workouts because I wasn’t Chin Strapped after every set.

While it’s not necessary to be hanging after every workout, it is necessary to have a fitness habit that puts you under a barbell even when it’s the last thing you want to be doing.

Muhammad Ali once said;

“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”

That came from ‘the greatest’ but just to bring it down to earth the battle isn’t won staring into a mirror and willing yourself on, though you might find that helpful.

The battle is won in your mind. how much do you want to achieve your goals, and how much are you willing to change your life.

By sticking at it relentlessly you’ll develop a habitual need to raise your heart-rate. by then it’ll hurt more to break the habit than to do copious amounts of burpees each morning.